TNT by Left Hand Brewing Company
Beer #244 is TNT by Left Hand Brewing Company from Longmont, Colorado. This Weizenbock is brewed with lapsang souchong tea with an ABV of 7.9%. Lapsang souchong tea is Chinese tea where the leaves are smoked over a pinewood fires. Sounds interesting to me, but I like smoky things.
The color of this brew was a very deep, dark brown. The head was awesome, huge, fluffy, and light brown. The nose was smoky and burnt smelling. Those qualities really took over the aroma in a way that I couldn’t get anything else out of it. The taste was heavy on the roasted malts with flavors like chocolate and nuts. There is a sweetness here also, quite like dark fruits. The smokiness is present in the flavor throughout but not like a Rauchbier, which to me has flavors like smoked meats. The smoky flavor here is what I think charred wood would taste like if I ever had actually tasted it. The aftertaste was dominated by those smoky flavors. The carbonation was quite low in this medium bodied brew giving it a creamy feeling. The alcohol was hidden very nicely here but that sweetness, almost sickening at times, made it a slower drinking brew for me.
This was a nice beer and I was digging the smoky quality the lapsang souchong tea provided. Try if you like smoky stuff…stay away if you hate smoky stuff. It is as simple as that.
Rating: B
